Author: katenepveu

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Robb, J.D.: (22) Memory in Death

J.D. Robb’s Memory in Death is a welcome return to the personally-based mystery after the appalling conspiracy mode of Origin. Eve Dallas’ former foster mother shows up, shakes Eve badly by causing Eve to remember her time in foster care, tries to blackmail Roarke, and ends up dead. Eve, of course, discovers the body and investigates the case.

My only complaint about this installment in the series is that it undercuts its own suspense, quite bafflingly. Early on, there’s a snippet of the foster-mother’s point of view, which makes clear something that Eve spends the next fifty pages (or so; the book’s gone back to the library) trying to figure out—which she does, indisputably. As far as I can tell, the only effect of this dip into the foster-mother’s point of view is to remove a bit of the mystery, which seems suboptimal for a book shelved in the mystery section of the bookstore. I also think it contributed to my guessing whodunnit quite early, though I probably would have regardless.

The fun character work makes up for this, to me, but it does strike me as a bit sloppy. Then again, this is a guilty-pleasure series for me.

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Tey, Josephine: Daughter of Time, The (audio)

Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time is famous as a mystery in which the detective does all his detecting while flat on his back in a hospital bed. Alan Grant is an Inspector at Scotland Yard who is bored out of his mind while recuperating. Knowing of his interest in faces, a friend brings him prints of historical figures with mysteries attached. Grant is perturbed to have placed Richard III on the bench rather than in the dock; he starts by refreshing his memory about Richard’s crime, the murder of the Princes in the Tower, and is slowly drawn into investigating the matter with the help of a fresh-faced young American.

I have heard people critique the solution that Grant comes to, but honestly I don’t care. The fun of this book for me is always in watching the process, slowly accumulating information and fitting all the pieces together. It’s really not like anything else that I’m aware of, and probably couldn’t be done again.

This time around I listened to it as an audiobook, recorded off BBC 7. I don’t know who the reader was, since the portions I recorded didn’t have that information, but whoever he is, he’s not any better at doing an American accent that the vast majority of British actors. I do have to say that out loud, I found the conclusions a little strongly stated; practicing law has given me a deep suspicion of statements that something is clear, simple, obvious, or (a favorite of Grant’s) inevitable. Also, Grant’s certainty that he can tell character through faces [*] grates a little more out loud, even accepting it as the quirk necessary to get the plot going. I think it’s probably a book best read rather than listened to, but it’s definitely worth reading.

[*] As I recall, Miss Pym Disposes, an earlier Tey novel, is an interesting contrast as it also has a protagonist convinced that the face is an infalliable guide to character. However, I found it a thoroughly unpleasant book and have no desire to re-read it to confirm my recollection.

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Quinn, Julia: (02) The Viscount Who Loved Me

The second of Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton books is The Viscount Who Loved Me. It’s a little too similar to the first, The Duke and I, in that the conflict is principally from the irrational fear of the male protagonist. Also, it has a cringe-inducing forced marriage, even more so than the first one. Standing alone, though, it’s not too bad (though probably ahistorical like anything, which I appear not to have said about the first one).

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O’Brian, Patrick: (04) The Mauritius Command (audio)

The Mauritius Command is the fourth of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin novels, and somewhat reminscient of the first, in that it’s as much concerned with a third party (there, James Dillion; here, Lord Clonfert) as with either of Jack or Stephen. It is less episodic than the first, being the tale of the British campaign to take the two small islands of Mauritius and La Réunion, in the Indian Ocean off Madagascar, from which the French have been playing havoc on British trade. Jack is given command of the squadron (thanks to Stephen, not that Stephen wanted that known), and for the first time must command other captains against difficult odds.

I found this satisfying on the whole, though I found myself getting mildly confused about locations, and would have done myself a favor if I’d remembered that the book had a map. There are exciting bits, devastating bits, a nuanced and compelling psychological portrait of Lord Clonfert, and a small amount of continuing emotional development of Jack and Stephen after book three’s romantic happenings. Not as many high points as H.M.S. Surprise, but a worthy listen.

As usual, a spoiler post follows.

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Christie, Agatha: Caribbean Mystery, A (radio play)

Since we first met Mr. Rafiel of Nemesis in A Carribean Mystery, I listed to that next. This is the one where an old bore asks Miss Marple if she wants to see a photograph of a murderer, stops before showing it her with a startled look on his face, and then ends dead. I don’t recommend experiencing these out of order; Miss Marple doesn’t ally with Mr. Rafiel until late in the book, and Nemesis has oblique but real spoilers for this story.

On its own, though, I’d be a bit dubious about this, as the big revelation that makes the mystery come together doesn’t seem physically plausible to me. Other than Mr. Rafiel, there isn’t too much memorable about this. (I do note that a sort of rough justice occurs with regard to one of the red herrings, which goes unremarked upon by the characters in the adaptation.)

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Christie, Agatha: Nemesis (radio play)

I picked Agatha Christie’s Nemesis nearly at random of my “audiobooks” playlist; I’d recorded it a while ago and didn’t remember a thing about the premise. So it was a nice surprise to find a strong opening hook: Jason Rafiel, who Miss Marple met on a prior case, has died, leaving her a large sum of money—if she’ll solve a mystery for him. He’s not going to tell her about the mystery, but information will come her way, and their code word will be “Nemesis,” which is a reference to the prior case. (Of course, in the radio play at least, no-one ever uses a code word, so it feels rather contrived.)

At this point, I was quite interested, but as the adaptation continued, I began to have some misgivings about this premise. Mr. Rafiel posthumously maneuvers Miss Marple into places where she can learn about the mystery, forcing her to find out everything herself, and I found myself tempted to conflate him with the author—and then I got annoyed with him and Christie for withholding information and making us jump through hoops. It’s hard to tell from the adaptation how much Mr. Rafiel knew or suspected about the mystery; maybe he guessed a lot and was directing Miss Marple accordingly, or maybe he was just spectacularly lucky.

This is probably one that’s better read, though for subtler reasons than the my previous quibbles with the adaptations for radio.

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Quinn, Julia: (01) The Duke and I

I bought a Palm Z22 recently, and its software bundle had some sample e-books, including Julia Quinn’s The Duke and I. This reminded me that I’d gulped down a number of Quinn’s books some months ago, and then left them in a desk drawer at work and never bothered to log them. So I dug out The Duke and I and re-read it during a wait at the car dealership.

Possibly I should have re-read it some other time, because while there’s nothing actively wrong with it, I spent most of my time noticing the ways in which the author contrived to get the characters together and then apart: pretending to be involved for practical purposes; a forced marriage; a big secret; an irrational fear. This is the first of Quinn’s series about the eight Bridgerton siblings, and as I recall each book stands alone fairly well (in contrast to James’ Four Sisters series, which I suspect of extending one sister’s plot over several volumes, and what is it about Regencies and sibling series these days?). Since this one lost its charm for me on a re-read, I may not bother with the rest, and just bring them home and shelve them—except perhaps for the fourth (Romancing Mister Bridgerton, and how I wish romance novels had better titles), which I recall as being a nice story about working at friendship and at writing.

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James, Eloisa: (02) Kiss Me, Annabel

Eloisa James’ Kiss Me, Annabel is the sequel to Much Ado About You, and like that book it was light lunchtime reading. I preferred the middle, relatively-plotless interlude best, where the two protagonists actually, you know, get to know and like each other. Other than that, I don’t have much to say about it, except that I think I know where book three is going (the same place I thought after book one), and I’m rather dubious about it.

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Christie, Agatha: Moving Finger, The (radio play)

Another Agatha Christie novel adapted for radio, this time as a five-parter (2.5 hours): The Moving Finger, in which a friend calls Miss Marple in after a spate of poison-pen letters results in a death. Judging by the reviews on Amazon, in the novel Miss Marple doesn’t show up until fairly late; the play restructures matters so it starts with her arrival, and she gets a recap from the novel’s point-of-view character. This worked fine for me, but may be distracting for those who read the novel first.

This is a nicely psychological mystery, and while I guessed whodunnit fairly early (I may be getting used to the way that Miss Marple, or perhaps Agatha Christie, thinks), I found it generally satisfactory. The romantic subplot at the end was decidedly not to my taste, but at least it was over quickly.

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